The City’s Most Loved Park

Zilker Metropolitan Park

351 acre park

Home to a variety of recreation opportunities and special events for the individual or the whole family

Plenty to do in the area including the hike and bike trails, picnic facilities, Zilker Botanical Garden, canoe rentals, soccer fields, sand volleyball courts, riverboat rides on Town Lake, concerts, festivals and even a miniature train

Invites relaxation with ample tree shade, gigantic rock formations to sprawl out on, ducks and turtles to observe, and an outdoor theater

The Trail of Lights Festival is an annual Austin holiday tradition and celebration held in the park

Filmmaking Capital of the U.S.

Local Film Industry of Austin

Has topped Texas cities in film and television total production budgets, accounting for 86 percent of total film budgets in the Lone Star State in 2004

MovieMaker magazine, a top film industry publication has placed Austin in the top five Top 10 Cities For Movie Makers in 2004

The best place in the U.S. to live and make movies

Has been the location of a number of movies, including Man of the House, Secondhand Lions, Waking Life, Spy Kids, Dazed and Confused, Office Space, The Life of David Gale, Miss Congeniality, Slacker, and The Faculty

The Austin Film Society (AFS) has converted several disused buildings from the now-defunct Austin Airport into a state-of-the-art digital filmmaking center known as Austin Studios

AFS opened the studio in 2000 in partnership with the City of Austin

With recent production credits that include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), The Life of David Gale, Friday Night Lights, Cheer Up, and The Wendell Baker Story

Hearing students and professors at the Austin Community College (ACC) asked me the two common questions: Is American Sign Language universal? Why did I use the capital “D”? I decided to write the article about the Deaf community to educate the hearing community at the ACC. The title is Using the Capital “D”: The Linguistic and Cultural Minority Group. The Accent is Austin Community College’s Student Newspaper. The Accent published my article on April 27, 2007.